Apparatus and method for RSRP measurement and allocation of downlink transmission resources

1. An apparatus for User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory interface configured to receive a predetermined Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) threshold from a memory; and

a processor coupled with the memory interface and configured to:

initiate a measurement procedure to measure a RSRP value for each of one or more candidate channels between the UE and an Access Node (AN), wherein each candidate channel corresponds to a respective Receive (RX) beam from the UE;

compare the RSRP value measured for a candidate channel of the one or more candidate channels with the predetermined RSRP threshold in a sequential manner, wherein RSRP values of the candidate channels are measured and compared with the predetermined RSRP threshold until a candidate channel is identified that has an RSRP value higher than the predetermined RSRP threshold;

terminate the measurement procedure when the candidate channel is identified and refrain from performing measurements on candidate channels that have not yet been measured; and

encode the RSRP value measured for the identified candidate channel to be reported from the UE to the AN.

2. An apparatus for User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory interface configured to receive a predetermined Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) threshold from a memory; and

a processor coupled with the memory interface and configured to:

initiate a measurement procedure to measure a RSRP value for each of one or more candidate channels between the UE and an Access Node (AN), wherein each candidate channel corresponds to a respective Receive (RX) beam from the UE;

compare the RSRP value measured for a candidate channel of the one or more candidate channels with the predetermined RSRP threshold; and

terminate the measurement procedure and encode the RSRP value measured for the candidate channel to be reported from the UE to the AN, when the RSRP value measured for the candidate channel is higher than the predetermined RSRP threshold,

wherein when no predetermined RSRP threshold is available to the UE or no RSRP value is higher than the predetermined RSRP threshold, the processor is further configured to:

measure RSRP values for all candidate channels between the UE and the AN and encode a highest RSRP value among the measured RSRP values, wherein the encoded highest RSRP value is reported from the UE to the AN.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the predetermined RSRP threshold is signaled to the UE from the AN, or predefined to be known by the UE.

4. An apparatus for User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory interface configured to receive a predetermined Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) threshold from a memory; and

a processor coupled with the memory interface and configured to:

initiate a measurement procedure to measure a RSRP value for each of one or more candidate channels between the UE and an Access Node (AN), wherein each candidate channel corresponds to a respective Receive (RX) beam from the UE;

compare the RSRP value measured for a candidate channel of the one or more candidate channels with the predetermined RSRP threshold;

terminate the measurement procedure and encode the RSRP value measured for the candidate channel to be reported from the UE to the AN, when the RSRP value measured for the candidate channel is higher than the predetermined RSRP threshold;

determine a reference RSRP value for the measurement procedure; and

obtain the predetermined RSRP threshold by subtracting a predefined RSRP margin threshold from the reference RSRP value.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein when there are no any previous RSRP measurements on the UE, the processor is further configured to:

measure RSRP values for all candidate channels between the UE and the AN;

determine a highest RSRP value among the measured RSRP values;

encode the highest RSRP value to be reported from the UE to the AN; and

set the determined highest RSRP value to be the reference RSRP value.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein when there is a previous RSRP measurement and report on the UE, the processor is further configured to:

determine a RSRP value previously reported from the UE to the AN as the reference RSRP value.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein when there is a previous RSRP measurement and report on the UE, the processor is further configured to:

determine a latest RSRP value reported from the UE to the AN; and

update the reference RSRP value to be the latest RSRP value reported from the UE.

8. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the RSRP value is measured based on a Reference Signal (RS) comprising a Synchronization Signal (SS), a SS together with a Physical Broadcasting Channel (PBCH), a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS).